Google Confirms Friend Connect — As we reported on Friday, Google will be launching its own Data Portability effort called Friend Connect. It will be announcing more details about the preview later tonight, but in a press release this morning it confirms:

Google brings Friend Connect to the masses — As expected, Google has unveiled a preview of Friend Connect, a way to add social features to a Web site without programming. — David Glazer, director of engineering at Google, described Friend Connect as plumbing for the rest of the Web.

AT&T now showing “iPhone Black” model in device listing — AT&T Wireless, Apple's exclusive iPhone provider in the United States, is now listing a second model of the iPhone in its device database called “iPhone Black,” AppleInsider has been informed. — The finding, discovered by a reader …

3G iPhone: Steve Jobs to deliver keynote June 9 — Although no official announcement has been made, Apple public relations confirmed to Fortune that Steve Jobs will deliver a keynote address on June 9, the first day of the 2008 World Wide Developers conference.

RIM Introduces the BlackBerry Bold Smartphone — Top of the line BlackBerry smartphone features premium design and unprecedented performance; perfect for business professionals and power users. — Waterloo, ON - For customers seeking a smartphone that makes a bold statement, Research In Motion …

Bold new BlackBerry 9000 to take on expected 3G iPhone — RIM said “hello” to the iPhone this morning when it introduced the long-anticipated BlackBerry 9000, also known as the BlackBerry Bold. Aside from its dashing good looks, the Bold has tweaks under the hood that not only improve upon …

HBO In Your Pocket — Apple is close to announcing it has signed a deal to sell HBO programs and movies on the iTunes website, according to HBO employees involved in executing the agreement. — The deal marks the first time that Apple has agreed to a separate price structure for a content provider, one of the employees said.

Ars Technica Has No Shame, But That's Nothing New — MG Siegler has this well-justified rant against uber-tech news site Ars Technica. His basic complaint is that Ars Technica is “really good at stealing other's ideas” because they ripped off a piece he did likening the global spread of the iPhone to the game of Risk.

Sprint's inferno: Churn baby churn — Sprint Nextel said Monday that it has lost more than 1 million customers in the last year. — Sprint, which has been busy of late with a WiMax joint venture with Clearwire and alleged takeover overtures from Deutsche Telekom, provided a healthy dose …

Microsoft exec Raikes named Gates Foundation CEO — Bill Gates, preparing to shift to full-time philanthropy at the end of June, has chosen one of his longtime Microsoft lieutenants as the chief executive of his foundation. Jeff Raikes, the retiring Microsoft Business Division president …

H-P Near Deal to Buy EDS — Hewlett-Packard Co. was close to a deal to acquire Electronic Data Systems Corp. for between $12 billion and $13 billion, according to people familiar with the mater. — The terms of the deal were not immediately clear but an announcement was expected soon, the people said.

Apple and Eve — Revealed: The heroine of Pixar's new release, Wall-E, was born from an iPod. — LOS ANGELES (Fortune) — In Pixar Films' upcoming animation epic, “Wall-E,” the title character is a cute but clunky robot whose centuries of solitude on an abandoned Earth is broken by the arrival …

Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits — SAN FRANCISCO — It is the burning question in tech circles, and Mike Murphy answers it before it is completed. — “I hear it every time I'm on a (tech) panel,” Murphy, Facebook's vice president of media sales, says with a wry smile.